like the body of Śiva, with its skulls and bones white as the moon.[1]
Jímútaváhana.
O Śankhachúda, go then. What is the use of these well-meant objections?
Śankhachúda.
The time for the approach of Garuda is close at hand. (Goes on his knees before his mother.) O mother, do you now go away. In whatever state we may be born again, mayst thou alone be my mother, O doting one!
Old Woman (with tears.)
How! Is this the very last speech? O son, my feet assuredly will not bear me from thee, therefore I will stay here.
Śankhachúda (rising).
After I have quickly walked round the southern Gokarna,[2] which is close at hand, I will carry out the command of my lord.
Jímútaváhana.
(having seen some one coming, joyfully, to himself).
Good luck! I have got what I wanted, through the unexpected acquisition of this pair of red garments.
- ↑ Śiva is often represented as wearing an elephant's skin and a necklace of skulls.
- ↑ Gokarna—there are two celebrated places of pilgrimage called Gokarna,—the northern one in Nepal, the southern on the Malabar coast. See Wilson’s "Essays on the Religion of the Hindus," ii. 16, 19. The manner of "walking round" was, to keep the right shoulder always towards the sacred place.
